Interruptions
by FeralShadowwolf
Summary: When Brennan and Shalimar attempt a romantic dinner for one night with no interruptions, things go askew when a lunatic mutant captures Jesse and Lexa. COMPLETE!
1. Doubts

**Interruptions**

"Should we really be doing this?" Shalimar asked Brennan as she lay in his bed, snuggled under the covers.

"It's a little late to be having doubts." Brennan joked, snuggling closer to Shalimar.

Laughing, Shalimar playfully hit Brennan. "No, I mean about lying to the guys, sneaking around all the time."

"Well, sure, sometimes I feel a little guilty, not telling them about us, but it's really not any of their business." Brennan replied sincerely, sitting up slightly.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Shalimar sighed. This constant 'lying to her friends' thing was sometimes too much. However, both herself and Brennan had agreed to keep it between them, letting things come naturally.

"I better get dressed, Jess and Lex will be back soon." Shalimar kissed Brennan softly, attempting to get up. Brennan had another thing on his mind. Pulling her back under the soft velvety covers, Shalimar squealed with delight as he tickled her.

"No fair!" Shalimar tried to say through laughing. Still, Brennan continued his torture. "Ok, I give up!"

"Good." Brennan smiled, lowering himself to touch her lips with his, caressing her face. Suddenly, she sat up.

"Shal, what's –"

"Shhh!" Shalimar listened intently. "They're back!"


	2. Guilty

After getting dressed in expert time, Shalimar and Brennan had pretended to play battleships against each other on the computers. Shalimar had compared its effectualness to lying books out on the floor and claiming they were studying. Brennan, calming her, had told her to just act natural.

"Hey guys," Jesse greeted as he came in.

"Hey Jess." Brennan and Shalimar said in unison. Nervously, they looked at each other. Of course they'd hidden their secret before, but they had never cut it so close. If Jesse noticed that uncomfortable moment, he didn't mention it.

"Where's Lexa?" Shalimar enquired, quickly trying to move on.

"She's taking her stuff to her room; too much to carry. I offered to help, but you know how stubborn she is." Jesse shrugged.

Lexa had gone to the mall to 'stock up' on a few supplies – in code that meant she needed more clothes. Foolishly, Jesse had offered to go with her, discovering how difficult women could be when shopping. All Jesse had bought was a new computer game entitled 'So You Think You're a Computer Genius?' Shalimar tried to hide a laugh; sounded about right for Jesse.

Entering the room, Lexa flicked Jesse on the shoulder in annoyance. "I may not have Shalimar's feral hearing, but I did hear that."

Laughing, Lexa and Jesse turned to Shalimar and Brennan. "So, what have you guys been up to?"

"Just playing battleships." Shalimar replied, smiling like an innocent nun at a convent.

"For 3 hours?" Jesse said unbelievingly.

"No, you know, we…" Shalimar looked at Brennan for help.

"Tidied up the place. I guess you didn't notice." Brennan shrugged naturally. Jesse and Lexa quickly glanced around. Sanctuary wasn't exactly a pigsty, but with Adam gone it wasn't a palace of cleanliness either.

"No, the place looks great." Lexa complimented.

"Well, I think I'm gonna go and have some lunch." Jesse said, leaving for the kitchen.

"Me too. That shopping made me hungry." Lexa said, joining Jesse to the kitchen.

Jesse turned around. "You sure you didn't mind being ditched this morning?"

"No."

"Of course not." Brennan and Shalimar assured him.

"Ok." Jesse smiled. "As long as you kept yourselves busy."

Blushing, Shalimar looked to Brennan who couldn't help but grin devilishly. Smiling embarrassingly at each other, Shalimar and Brennan followed Jesse and Lexa, occasionally brushing their fingertips against one another.


	3. Confused

Sitting down for lunch, it was unusually quiet and Brennan struggled to form a conversation.

"So, Lex, buy anything good at the mall?" Brennan asked. Shalimar hid a grin, almost choking on her food. Brennan must be desperate if he's taking an interest on her clothing tastes.

Looking almost nervously to Jesse, she quickly said, "Yeah, I got a new top and some leather pants."

"You're gonna be letting me borrow those!" Shalimar joked.

"No!" Jesse and Lexa shouted in unison. Shalimar and Brennan looked at them, shocked. Once realising Shalimar was just joking, Lexa went bright red and Jesse lowered himself to his food.

"What I mean is, I haven't even worn them yet and I wanted to try them on first in case they are the wrong size." Lexa quickly explained.

Shalimar and Brennan looked at each other, both looking confused and non-excepting of Lexa's explanation.

"Well, I'm finished, I think I'll try out that game now." Jesse got up slightly rushed and went to put his plate in the dishwasher.

"I'll help." Lexa rushed off with Jesse, leaving Shalimar and Brennan alone once again.

"Well, they were acting weird." Brennan observed.

"No kidding." Shalimar finished off her food, and then they both stood up to leave.

Changing the subject, Brennan asked, "You wanna get together later?"

Taking her into his arms, she answered. "What about them?" She referred to Lexa and Jesse.

"I was kinda hoping we could do it without them." Brennan grinned. Shalimar laughed and gave him a small flick on the shoulder. "Actually, I was kinda thinking maybe _we _could go out."

"You were?" Shalimar smiled.

"Yeah. Dinner, champagne and afterwards…" Brennan trailed off suggestively.

"Don't push it mister." Shalimar smiled and kissed Brennan as he held her.

"Bren?" Jesse called, hearing him coming back into the kitchen.

Shalimar and Brennan quickly pulled apart, acting as if they were having the most interesting conversation.

"So that's how they get the stains out!" Brennan overacted.

Jesse looked at them, at their stance. Strange body language for talking about stains.

"Something you want Jess?" Shalimar enquired, looking as innocent as possible, batting her eyelashes and all.

"Yeah," Jesse paused to shrug off their weird behaviour as too much stain remover inhaling. Looking at Brennan, he smiled, "Is this yours?" He held up a red thong.

Quickly disappearing behind Brennan, Shalimar took a deep breath. _I was looking for that! Crap!_

"Um…" Brennan was searching his brain for anything, any possible reason why he would have a red thong. "Where did you find it?"

"It was in your room." Jesse answered suspiciously.

"What were you doing in my room?" Brennan asked, looking very pissed off.

"Chill dude, I was looking for the link-up lead you borrowed last week." Jesse said, defending himself.

"Next time, ask." Brennan replied, cooling off. "It's in my top drawer on the left."

"You still haven't explained about the thong." Jesse smiled. He could see that his friend was wriggling, but didn't know why.

"Um… it's my old girlfriend's." Brennan explained.

"Huh?" Jesse seemed confused. "You didn't give them back?"

"She wanted to give them to him as a souvenir." Shalimar explained and Jesse gave her a questioning look. "He told me the story a while ago."

"Right. Well, interesting girlfriend." Jesse replied, handing the thong back to Brennan.

"Right. Interesting." Brennan agreed. As two of the three of them looked shamelessly at the floor, avoiding eye contact, Jesse felt he had to go.

"I'm off. See you guys later."

When he had left, Brennan said. "That was odd, I thought for sure he would figure it out. He's the smart one." Brennan joked.

"Give me that." Shalimar grabbed the thong from his hand. "That was too close, this morning, I thought we were in for. I can't keep doing this Bren, I just can't keep lying." Shalimar rambled.

"Shhh." Brennan soothed her, taking her into his arms, comforting her. "If you want to tell them we can."

"I don't know. One part of me is telling me that we should, for all the reasons I just said. Jess and Lex are like family; it's not fair to lie to them. But another part of me likes us being a secret, I feel closer to you." Shalimar expressed.

"I know what you mean Shal, and I don't mind. Whatever you want to do." Brennan caressed her face with the soft touch of his fingers.

"Thanks Bren." Shalimar smiled, then laughed at herself. She was getting upset over nothing. She just had to trust that everything would work out, but lately with Emma and Adam, her faith in that quivered. "Now, you were saying something about tonight?"

Now Brennan smiled. "I was thinking dinner, then a moonlight walk on the beach."

"Sounds perfect." Shalimar purred.

"How about we 'individually' take off at 7pm? You can say you have a date and I'll say I'm going to get together with a couple of old friends at a pub." Brennan suggested.

"Ok, great. I'm gonna go and work out a bit now. I'll see you later." Shalimar gave Brennan a quick kiss on the lips and ran off to her room to get dressed.


	4. Mistakable Fling

"You think they noticed anything?" He asked.

"I don't think so, but it was a close call at lunch." She answered, looking in her mirror and reapplying her lipstick.

"Do you regret it?" He asked, slightly dreading her reply.

"Lunch?" She knew what he meant, but she needed time to think, even if it was a few seconds.

"You know what I mean." He said, standing by her closed door.

She turned around from her mirror, looking him in the eye. "I don't know."

Feeling tired and emotionally letdown, he turned around to leave.

"Wait." She stood up and stepped toward him. He turned around to once again face the woman he loved, but apparently felt nothing for him.

"If this is nothing to you, if today was just a flook, then we can forget it. End it right now. But if today was a possibility for us, then I don't want to walk away from that." He said, tired of the constant cat-and-mouse game of love.

"Haven't you ever been with someone just for the thrill of it?"

He gave her a disbelieving look. "I'm drawn to you, yes, and I do want you, but I don't know why. Sometimes you can be such a cold hearted bitch."

She withdrew, as if she was physically struck by his words. He turned around and walked out of her room, leaving her with a numb feeling inside.


	5. Going Out

It was 6:30pm at Sanctuary and everyone seemed exceptionally quiet. Shalimar, Brennan, Lexa and Jesse were each in their rooms, doing their own thing.

Shalimar was the first to come into the large hall wearing a strapless black dress and the earrings that Brennan had bought her for her birthday.

Brennan then came out wearing a formal black suit and a huge grin on his face when he saw Shalimar.

"Shal, you look incredible." Brennan complimented, inching himself closer to her scent.

"Not looking too shabby yourself." Shalimar quipped. She was driving Brennan crazy and she liked it!

"So, what –" Shalimar paused for a second as Jesse and Lexa entered the hall, each looking as uncomfortable as each other that they were in the same room. "What stain remover do you use?"

Seeing Lexa and Jesse, Brennan caught on. "Oh, the same one my mom used to use, but yours sounds good."

"That's the second time you guys have been talking about stain remover today. Are you guys in some stain remover cult club I should know about?" Jesse smiled.

"So, where are you guys going?" Lexa asked, ignoring Jesse's presence and comment.

"No where together, that's for sure." Brennan smiled. _Oh yeah, very smooth, _Brennan mentally kicked himself.

"I have a date actually with this guy named Mitch Reynolds." Shalimar explained. Where she'd heard that name before she had no clue, but as long as Lexa and Jesse hadn't heard it before, it didn't matter.

Lexa nodded approvingly. "So romance isn't dead."

"And what about you?" Jesse turned to Brennan who was now adjusting his tie.

"I'm going to see a few old friends, maybe go to a pub." Brennan explained. "I figured I'd drop Shal off on my way and pick her up later."

"Wow, your very own taxi service." Lexa commented. "Where can I get one?"

"Yes, well, must be off, we're gonna be late for the dinner reservation." Brennan quickly looked to Lexa and Jesse, realising his mistake. "You, I mean you, are gonna be late." Brennan said, taking Shalimar's arm.

"Right. Can't keep Mitch waiting. Bye!" Shalimar said slightly squealing as both Brennan and Shalimar left their friend's in utter confusion.

"Smooth." Shalimar whispered to Brennan through gritted teeth.


	6. Decisions

"So, now that they're gone, waddaya wanna do?" Lexa asked standing whilst uncomfortably playing with her fingernails. The conversation that they had earlier had grown some tension between them.

"I was gonna update the mutant profiles we have, check for any anomalies etc." Jesse said and walked off to the computer.

_So I guess he's still a little mad, _Lexa thought as she walked back to her room feeling upset. In Lexa's room, she began reading her book, but couldn't quite get into it while her mind toiled over Jesse.

Earlier he had asked her if their one-time thing had meant anything to her, but Lexa wasn't sure. Of course she liked Jesse, he was irresistible with his smile and the way he looks at her sometimes… But something held her back. For so long she had been searching for her brother, risking anything and anyone to find him; having no emotional attachments. Now that she had lost her brother, she had lost herself. Leo was her life for so long, it's hard to become someone else overnight.

In the mall, when Lexa had begun to break down in front of Jesse, he'd taken her aside and comforted her as best he could. Before either of them knew it, they were kissing passionately, but fiercely. She could feel his hunger for her inside of him, a side of Jesse anyone rarely saw. This both terrified and excited Lexa. She could blame their 'time together' on grief, tell herself that it meant nothing, but that wouldn't be fair to Jesse. She did care for him, she just didn't know how deeply. She needed time to figure it out.


	7. Uncovered

After half an hour of thinking about it, Lexa quickly walked into the hall where Jesse was doing something clever with the computers.

Before she lost her nerve, she stood behind him, breathing slowly. "Jess, I need to talk to you."

"Good. I need to talk to you too. I did some background checks on some of the unstable mutants and guess who's name popped up. Shalimar's date." Jesse said, as he made a holographic projection of Mitch Reynolds file appear in front of them.

Quickly skimming Mitch Reynolds information, it told them all they needed to know. He was a mutant and worked for Genomex way back when.

"It may not be the same guy Shal's meeting tonight." Lexa suggested. Coincidences happen.

"Given our luck, I wouldn't be too careful." Jesse said. He spoke into his comlink ring. "Shal, you there?" They waited a few seconds. No reply. "Shal, this is serious."

"Yeah Jesse." She sounded a little pissed off. "What's up this time?"

"Your date worked for Genomex. Plus, he's totally unstable. We have records of his medical file in front of us." Jesse reported.

"Oh god." Shalimar muttered, not caring if anyone heard her. "Are you sure it's the same guy?"

"That's what I said." Lexa said.

"How many guys named Mitch Reynolds can there be?" Jesse argued. "It says here that he's a temporal molecular. He can fast forward or slow down the molecules surrounding him."

"That's very interesting Jesse, but my date _is_ stable and I met him in the underground. I'm fine. Quit worrying and stop looking up my dates on the mutant database."

"Fine, but if you don't come home tonight or if he attacks you, I'm allowed to say I told you so." Jesse complained.

"Fine. Night Jess. Why don't you and Lex do something fun, doesn't sound like your evening is going fantastically wonderful from this end. Night." With that, Jesse knew the conversation was over.

"I'm gonna look into Mitch Reynolds some more just to make sure." Jesse said without even looking at Lexa.

"Okay." Lexa replied quietly.

"Didn't you wanna say something to me earlier?" Jesse turned around, facing Lexa for the first time since their little chat. He decided that if she didn't want anything to happen, nothing had to. Their relationship was purely professional. He'd just forget it ever happened.

"Oh, it was nothing." Lexa smiled. Quickly turning around, she returned to her room. Maybe she wasn't ready to be involved with Jesse yet.


	8. Interrupted

"There's been a kink in the plan." Shalimar told Brennan once her conversation with Jesse had ended.

"What's going on?" Brennan asked. They'd been sitting in the restaurant for 5 minutes before Jesse interrupted.

"Well, it turns out that my 'date' is a real guy, who funnily enough is psychotic and a GS Agent." Shalimar sighed. Could they never get away from it all? Couldn't Brennan and herself be alone for 10 minutes without Jesse, Lexa or the GSA interrupting? Sometimes it seemed that she could never have a life other than 'the feral' of Mutant X.

"What are we going to do? If they think you're in danger, they'll do more research and do something." Brennan said. "Maybe you're right. Maybe we should tell them about us."

"No." Shalimar replied. "I don't want them to know yet?"

"You don't want them to know or you're afraid of telling them?" Brennan asked.

"A little of both, but… I just don't think it's time yet." Shalimar said.

"Ok, but Jesse and Lexa are gonna eventually find out. It's just a matter of if and when we tell them, or if they find out themselves. I don't know if you've noticed, but we're not the stealthiest couple." Brennan smiled.

"I know, but not now." Shalimar gave Brennan her pouty I-can-get-anything-I-want-with-this-look face.

"Ok." Brennan laughed, giving into Shalimar. "One day that look won't work. As for 'your date', we could just deactivate our rings." Brennan suggested.

"Jesse and Lexa might worry and try to contact us though." Shalimar worried.

"How about we check in after the meal. Can we just get through one meal without being interrupted?" Now it was Brennan's turn to do the pouting thing.

"Ok, I'll deactivate mine too." Shalimar agreed, laughing at Brennan's attempt to do the pout.

Removing their rings, Brennan and Shalimar continued their dinner without the fear of being interrupted.


	9. Identities

"Lexa!" Jesse yelled. Lexa came into the hall with a fast poise; annoyed that Jesse thought he could call her at his whim.

"What?" She replied.

"I did some digging on Shal's date and it doesn't look good. He used to be Eckhart's right hand man a couple of years ago, but then he just up and left. I bet Eckhart was pissed. How or why he got away I don't know, but a few months ago a guy was found murdered. Guess who the prime suspect was?"

"Mitch. But that doesn't make sense. Why kill a guy after ditching the GSA? Anything that makes mutants stand out in society are instantly tracked by the GSA." Lexa said.

"That seemed weird to me too. So I looked at his medical files again. He was pumped full of drugs which affected him psychologically. That's why he's with the crazy. He doesn't know what he's doing and he's a mutant, which makes him all the more dangerous." Jesse explained.

"We have to go after this guy. What evidence was there for the murder?"

"A homeless man supposedly saw this guy slow down time and watch while Mitch killed someone." Jesse reported. Lexa leaned down beside Jesse, reading the screen. Jesse inhaled Lexa's soft scent that gave him a light-headed feeling of wooziness.

"Ok, we should call Shal and get her back here. At least until we know what's what." Lexa said, snapping Jesse out of his haze and nodded with agreement.

"Shal, it's an emergency." Jesse waited, but there was still no reply. "Shal, it's serious." No reply.

Jesse turned to the computer screen and tapped into her comring frequency. "Her comlink ring is deactivated."

"Try Brennan, he knows where she went to dinner." Lexa suggested.

"Brennan?" Jesse said. "Bren, it's kinda important." No reply.

Jesse checked Brennan's comlink ring statistics. His was deactivated too. "This is getting weird. Maybe something happened to them." Jesse said, worry in his voice.

"Way to stay positive. Can you trace their rings from the last location the rings were active?" Lexa asked.

"Yeah. Give me a sec." Jesse said, tapping into their comlink ring mainframe system. Waiting a few seconds for it to load, it finally came up. "The last place for Shalimar was Valentino's – a restaurant down on Maine." Jesse tapped a few more keys. "And Brennan was… at Valentino's too."

"So that means they were probably taken a few minutes after we talked to Shal." Lexa concluded.

"Right, she must have just arrived at the restaurant. That's what must of happened." Jesse agreed. "We should head down there. If there's anyway to find them, that's our best shot." Jesse said, pointing to Valentino's on the computer screen.

"Let's go then." Lexa said, heading for the Double Helix. Jesse ran after her. He knew she was going to be stubborn to work with, but this wasn't about them. It was about Brennan and Shalimar.


	10. The End Of The Evening

"This isn't about us, this is about Lexa and Jess!" Shalimar shouted. Ever since Brennan and herself had left the restaurant and had begun walking down the beach, all they had done was argue.

"If you don't want to be here, you don't have to be." Brennan replied, angered by Shalimar's tone of voice.

"I'm just saying that if they go after this Mitch guy because of me and something happens to them, I'd never forgive myself." Shalimar said.

"They wouldn't be that stupid! You're getting upset over nothing." Brennan argued.

"Look, I've always trusted my instincts and I'm not about to stop now. Take me home." Shalimar said, almost through gritted teeth. If Shalimar wasn't making Brennan seethe, he would have suggested calling them on their comlink rings, but at the moment, he just wanted the night to end. Shalimar had gotten a 'bad feeling' about Lexa and Jess earlier and had said they had to go home; Brennan blamed her 'bad feeling' on the food. This is where the argument had rooted from.

"Fine." Brennan said, giving up. _I don't think I can even attempt to salvage tonight into a romantic getaway._ "Sometimes you can be so dramatic."

Hearing Brennan's hurtful remark, she decided not to act on it. Someone had to be the grown-up of this piece and it certainly wasn't going to be Brennan. Shalimar didn't like arguing with Brennan, despite what he may think, but right now she was more in tune with what her instincts were telling her than her boyfriend, and her instincts were telling her that something was wrong.

Walking back down the beach, it was unusually silent and both were smouldering from the fight. It was their first fight as a couple and it felt totally foreign.

To Brennan it was as if he saw an entirely different side to Shalimar. A more annoyingly persistent, stubborn side who wouldn't listen to what he was saying. _Wait a minute, I've encountered that side of Shal many times, but it's only ever taken effect this time. _Maybe this relationship was doomed from the start. Whatever was going on with them, he didn't want to think about it, he just wanted to get back to Sanctuary and prove Shalimar wrong.


	11. It's Always the Alley

"I asked the guy inside, he said he seated two people matching Shal and Mitch's description earlier, but they left about 40 minutes ago." Jesse reported after coming out of Valentino's. He described a short blonde wearing a strapless black dress and her partner, a taller dark haired guy who probably wore a suit. The waiter seemed to recognise them immediately.

"Did he know what direction they were headed?" Lexa asked.

"No." Jesse answered simply.

"What about Brennan?" Lexa asked.

"The waiter said the blonde only came inside with one man, he saw no one else." Jesse replied, leaning against the restaurant's outside wall.

"Ok, so Brennan must have stayed in the car when he dropped her off." Lexa concluded.

"Right, but we still don't know where they went." Jesse said.

Lexa diverted her attention for a second, but stared back to what she was looking at. Jesse, following her gaze, looked behind him. A dark alley.

Lexa walked toward it. "In every movie I've ever seen, someone always gets murdered in an alley." Jesse looked surprised. Lexa noticed and stopped turning to face him. "What?"

"I just didn't figure you for the mystery murder type." Jesse confessed, laughing slightly.

"Oh no? And what type did you think I was?" Lexa smiled.

"I don't know really." Jesse smiled. Letting a few moments pass, Lexa resumed what Jesse liked to call 'her mission stance'. It was all business and she instantly forgot her personal issues.

"We should check out this alley."

"Right." Jesse agreed, peeling his stare away from her. "I gotta say though, this is pretty thin."

"Anorexic." Lexa smiled. She knew Jesse liked the 'Lethal Weapon' movies and every chance she got she tried to flaunt it. Jesse couldn't hide his smile from Lexa.

"It's kinda dark." Jesse stated, and then mentally hit himself for sounding so lame. _Of course it's dark, it's an alley!_

"Yeah, I can't see anything either." Lexa agreed.

"I can see perfectly." A voice said from behind them. Jesse and Lexa instantly turned to face the voice, but no one was there.

"Over here." It came from beside Lexa. "Now I'm here." From beside Jesse.

"Show yourself." Lexa commanded. Although she knew that this guy was almost definitely a mutant, she could risk using her powers, just in case.

A man stood in front of them; his face hidden by the shadows.

"Who are you?" Jesse asked.

"Why are you in my alley? No one should be in my alley!" From where Jesse was standing, this man didn't sound right. He sounded crazy.

"Lex, how about a little light?" Jesse suggested. If he was just a crazy man opposed to a crazy mutant, no one would believe him if he said he saw a woman create light.

In a second, light rippled from Lexa's hands, blinding the stranger. Jesse had shut his eyes.

"It's Mitch." Lexa reported, hardly surprised. In her lifetime, with all her experiences, it took a lot to surprise Lexa.

Mitch took a few moments to recover, but he looked slightly pissed off. Lexa could also see a hint of crazed happiness gleaming from his devilish eyes.

"Where are Shalimar and Brennan?" Jesse said loudly and clearly enough. But Mitch still took a few seconds to process what he had said. It looked like he was trying to figure it out.

"You shouldn't play in the dark children. Bad things can happen." He laughed, although it sounded like a strangled croak.

Jesse threw Lexa a look, warning and protective. They were both disturbed by Mitch's lack of sanity and wondered why on earth Shalimar would go out with this guy.

Still, Lexa refused to leave until Brennan and Shalimar were found. "Where are Brennan and Shalimar?"

"Would you like to be my friends?" He whined.

Whispering to Lexa, Jesse said "We won't get anything from him. He's clearly out of his mind."

"And also a mutant. Crazy mutants are too dangerous to be left loose in the city." Lexa argued. Deep down, Jesse knew she was right, but this guy didn't seem dangerous, just confused. Very confused. However, they still didn't know where Brennan and Shalimar were and he was their prime suspect.

"One last chance." Lexa warned Mitch.

"We can play together." He smiled. "Let's play together."

The last thing Jesse saw was Mitch blinking his eyes and then a sharp pain in the back of his head, before dropping into unconsciousness.


	12. Not At Home

"Lex? Jess?" Shalimar called through the Sanctuary. She'd called their names a couple of times before and there had been no answer.

"Ok, so maybe I was wrong." Brennan said quietly.

"This is not a time for jokes – Lexa and Jesse are missing." Shalimar said with urgency in her voice.

"I know. I am here, I've absorbed the fact that no ones here." Brennan said, waving his hand to draw attention to himself. Seeing Shalimar clearly upset, Brennan said. "Maybe they just went out for yoghurt or something."

"I doubt it." Shalimar said, her positive attitude rapidly degrading.

"We should try their comlink rings." He suggested.

"I totally forgot about those! They probably tried to contact us." Shalimar said, rushing to put her ring back on. "Lex? Jess? Are you there?" No reply.

"I'm worried." Shalimar said.

"There's no need to. We've been in this kinda situation a thousand times before." Brennan comforted her.

"Right, we just need to figure out what happened." Shalimar said. "Bren, if anything happened to them because of me, I…"

"It's okay, come here." Brennan held her softly in his arms. "They can take care of themselves."

Looking over Shalimar's shoulder, Brennan could see the computer still on. "Shal, look."

Shalimar turned around to see the computer with a plan of the city and two red dots on the building representing Valentino's. "They were trying to find us." Shalimar concluded.

"Yeah, it looks like they traced our comlink rings to their last activated location." Brennan said. Typing a little something into the computer, Brennan tried to trace theirs. "Lexa and Jesse's comlink rings were last recognised at Valentino's as well."

"Right, so we just need to get back there and ask if anyone if they saw anything." Shalimar said a little more brightly than she sounded before.

"I'll drive." Brennan said. They left Sanctuary and headed for the car.


	13. Warehouse Whispers

Jesse was the first to wake up. His surroundings were dark and quiet with only a slither of light coming from a cracked darkened window far, far above him. Whether the ceiling was just extremely high or was feeling the effects of a possible concussion, he didn't feel like climbing through that window anytime soon. His head throbbed and he tried to reach for it. He couldn't: he was in chains. However, he could feel liquid dripping down his face, but wasn't sure whether it was blood or sweat.

Beside him, Lexa was still asleep and he couldn't help but notice how innocently beautiful she looked. _What a difference from her usual self, _Jesse rolled his eyes. Nevertheless, they had to get out of there, find Brennan and Shalimar, get Mitch and get him to a mutant psychiatric ward as soon as possible. This guy was definitely out of his mind.

"Sometimes it's good to be a freak." Jesse whispered. He tried to phase the chain off him, but nothing happened. Trying again, his powers failed him.

"This isn't good." He whispered to himself. "Lexa. Lexa!" Lexa didn't stir and for a couple of seconds he thought she maybe be drugged, but soon her eyes fluttered open.

"Lexa." Jesse whispered. He wasn't sure where Mitch was, but he couldn't afford to take any chances.

Lexa heard a voice calling out to her, disturbing her dreams. Dreams of Jesse… Jesse was calling out to her. "Jess?" She blinked and tried to reach for her head, but was restrained by cold metal. Now, fully waking, she saw nothing but Jesse beside her, looking concerned and hurt.

"You're bleeding!" Lexa tried to scoot closer to him, but the chains wouldn't let her.

"I know. Don't worry about me, are you ok?" Jesse asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. What's going on?" Lexa asked, sitting up next to him. Why they were whispering, she didn't know, but there was probably a reason.

"Best guess, Mitch wanted some friends and he got them." Jesse said.

"And we're whispering because?" Lexa asked. Looking around her all she could see was a high ceiling and outlined shadows. The place screamed deserted warehouse, but there was clearly no one there.

"My throat hurts." Jesse smiled and Lexa rolled her eyes. "Can you use your powers to get us out of here?"

"Lexa looked surprised. "Of course. Are you all superhero-ed out for the day?"  
"Something like that. Can you just try please." Jesse mumbled.

Lexa, looking a little peeved off at his tone, concentrated on drawing light from her fingertips. Nothing happened. "There's not enough light in here, that's all." Lexa said.  
"I don't think that's it. My powers aren't working either." Jesse said.

Lexa had a thought. "Jess, turn round for a sec." Jesse looked confused, but did as he was told. From behind him, he heard Lexa sigh and lean back on the wall. He turned back round to face her, seeing her eyes closed.

"What?" Jesse asked, noticing her defeatist look.

"Subdermal Governor." Lexa answered with another sigh.

"Damn." Jesse lean back against the wall. He checked his finger and was hardly surprised when he found his comring missing. Glancing over to Lexa, hers wasn't there either.

"What do we do now?" Lexa asked, looking at Jesse.

"Get out the human way?" Jesse guessed. He'd never felt more helpless. His powers were useless and they had been captured by, not just a lunatic, but a mutant lunatic.

"Sure, feel like climbing a wall?" Lexa asked dryly as she looked at the window about 30 ft. above them. Jesse smiled. "You know, I'm beginning top think that Shal and Brennan aren't here." Lexa observed.

"I agree, but I don't understand it. Why would Shal say she was going on a date with this guy if she wasn't?" Jesse asked confused.

"Maybe she wasn't going on a date with Mitch. Think about it Jess. Brennan drove Shalimar to her date – that's never happened before that I know of – and the waiter said a taller guy in a suit. Brennan was wearing something pretty OTT for someone going to see some old friends. Maybe Brennan _was _Shalimar's date." Lexa concluded.

"Brennan and Shalimar together?" Jesse seemed surprised. He'd never thought of them getting together before. He saw them more as brother and sister than boyfriend and girlfriend.

"It's not that surprising, really. I just wish they would have told us, it could've saved us all this trouble." Lexa said.

"It's surprising to me. I mean, I guess it kinda explains things. But still…" Jesse breathed out.

"You seriously didn't see this coming?" Lexa asked, looking at him surprised. He'd known them longer than her, so it seemed that he should have picked up on it before her.

"I don't know." Jesse admitted.

In front of them, Jesse and Lexa heard a large metal door scrape open and rays of light streamed through, blinding both of them. Through the light, a dark figure stood menacingly. "Are you ready to play?"

Lexa and Jesse looked at each other, worried not just for themselves, but for Mitch's state of mind. As Mitch came closer, his features became clearer. He wore dirty baggy clothes and had a rough look about him. In his left hand, he held a brown paper bag with objects inside.

Kneeling down beside them, he said, "I brought some toys."

Opening the bag, Lexa and Jesse saw 8 surgical knives and 2 syringes full of god-knows what sorts of drugs. In a panicking rage, Jesse tried to use his powers, anything to get Lexa and himself out of there. Out of his pocket, Mitch pressed a little button and Jesse toppled over in searing pain, yelling in agony.

"That's against the rules." Mitch pouted.

Catching his breath, Jesse saw Lexa looking at him with concern. It hurt him to see her worried. He knew Lexa was a very independent person and when she got worried, bad things were in store. He looked up to Mitch, who towered above them, and readied himself for whatever he could throw at them.


	14. Clues

Brennan had gone inside Valentino's and had asked for the waiter that had seated them earlier. Unfortunately, he went home and Brennan saw nom point in asking for his address.

"What now?" Shalimar asked.

"I don't know." Brennan replied. "If they were taken somewhere near here, there must have been a struggle. Maybe you could that feral thing you do?"

Shalimar smiled. Tuning into her feral senses, her eyes turned a menacing yellow gold. She glanced around her and into the alley around the side.

"I smell blood." Shalimar said, prowling into the alley.

"Who's?" Brennan asked.

Shalimar knelt down to the floor, dipping fingers in the blood and smelling. "Jesse's." She looked around the dusty mud floor. "Jesse and Lexa were here with someone else. There seems to be no struggle, but there's a trail of dragging bodies." Shalimar followed the prints. Before they lead too deeply into the alley, the prints simply stopped. As if three people just disappeared. "The tracks stopped." Shalimar growled, a look of confusion on her face.

"How could they have just stopped?" Brennan asked, now searching himself for what he knew only Shalimar could see.

"I don't know." Shalimar admitted. Standing upright, she looked around again, retracing her steps. Silver glinted in the moonlight, catching Shalimar's eye. "Wait a minute."

On closer inspection, she knew exactly what it was. Lexa and Jesse's comlink rings. They were lodged between leaves in a drain.

"I can see their comlink rings." Shalimar said, kneeling to open the metal drain bars. Pulling at the metal bars, Shalimar found they wouldn't budge.

"It must be reinforced, I can't move it." Shalimar said.

Brennan sparked electricity from his hand. "Sometimes it just needs one of these." He smiled and shot a bolt of electricity on the drain lid.

Shalimar waited a couple of seconds and then tugged once again on the bars, this time it came free with ease. Reaching down into the drain with a piece of cloth, she picked up the two rings. Looking closely with her feral eyesight, she noticed what she hoped to find.

"There are fingerprints on these that belong to neither Jesse not Lexa." Shalimar said. "We can find a match with the mutant database at Sanctuary."

"What makes you think this guy was a mutant?" Brennan asked.

"The day Lexa and Jesse get kidnapped by a dude with no powers is the day I give up mine." Shalimar smiled.

"Good point." Brennan smiled.

"It's good to be blonde. I constantly surprise people with my know-how." Shalimar smiled.

"And modest too, I've got quite a catch." Brennan laughed. "Come on, let's get back to Sanctuary with those rings."


	15. Picking the Lock

Mitch had left again, claiming he had forgotten one very important 'toy'. There was a crazy look in his eye, which made him more dangerous and more deadly than Lexa or Jesse had previously thought.

"How do you think he got a Subdermal Governor?" Jesse asked.

"Well, he worked for the GSA, so he could've taken it from there." Lexa said. She and Jesse were still chained and couldn't think of any way to get out.

"I guess. I would have loved to see Eckhart's face when Mitch left with the Governor." Jesse smiled.

"Yeah. I wonder how many people have tried to leave Genomex and succeeded." Lexa thought.

"Not many I reckon." Jesse guessed.

"How are we gonna get out of here, Jess?" Lexa sighed, resting her head against the wall supporting her.

"It might help if we knew _where _we are." Jesse said.

"Well, let's think about it. We were in the alley, Mitch was talking to us about being his friends and the next thing we know, we're here." Lexa recalled.

"Yes, but how does that help us get out of here?"

"Well, actually, since we were unconscious at the time, it doesn't." Lexa said.

Jesse looked at the lock keeping the chains on him. It wasn't anything super high-tech, just a simple lock you could buy from any old shop. Suddenly, a thought occurred to him. "Lexa, can you see anything like a paperclip or a wire perhaps?"

Lexa tried to look through the darkness on the floor. There was a lot of filth – pieces of dry mud, dust and broken beer bottles covered the floor, but nothing remotely close to what Jesse asked for. Except… Reaching her hair, she pulled her hairpin out. "Will this work?"

Jesse took it in his hand and looked at it. "Yeah, that should do it."

He put the pin in the lock and began to fiddle around. "I've always wanted to try this." He smiled.

Lexa rolled her eyes in disbelief. "Jess, that will never work."

"Give it a chance." They waited quietly for a few moments and nothing happened.

"Ok, my turn." Lexa shuffled closer to Jesse in order to get to the hairpin. As she shuffled, she lost her balance and toppled over onto Jesse so that she was lying in his arms facing him.

"Are you ok?" Jesse smiled. "I didn't know you could loose your balance sitting down."

Temporarily mesmerised by Jesse's blue eyes, all she could manage to say was, "Uh-huh."

Jesse helped her sit upright again. "Maybe I should keep going with that lock for a bit longer."

"Jess," Lexa took his arm. "There's something I wanted to tell you earlier, but then this whole thing started and timing wasn't great–"

"Lex, slow down, you're rambling." Jesse smiled. He'd never seen that before.

"Right. Jess, this morning when you asked me if I regretted what happened–"

Cutting her off, the large metal door swung open to reveal Mitch's unwelcome silhouette.

"I'm ready to play now." He whined, glinting his teeth in the light coming from the window above his two victims.


	16. Scientific Clues

When Shalimar and Brennan had gotten back to Sanctuary, they had analysed the fingerprints and concluded that they belonged to a mutant named Mitch Reynolds.

"Crap. You were right, they thought you were in danger and went out to find you. Now we have no leads." Brennan stated frustrated.

"Look, I'm feeling as guilty as you, maybe even more so, but we need to focus and deal with self-pity later." Shalimar said. She got Lexa and Jesse into this, she was going to get them out. "On Mitch's fingerprints, the computer found traces of liquidised gases. I should be able to smell it, but I didn't or can't now, which means the gas is still unscented."

"So?" Brennan said, feeling a little dim-witted. He was being outsmarted by a blonde, not that he had anything against this particular blonde.

"So, gas is always scented before it's distributed so that it's easier to determine a gas leak." Shalimar explained.

"Which means this had to have come from a gas manufacturing company." Brennan caught on. "I'll run a search for local warehouses." Brennan went to the main computer and performed a basic search. "Ok, there's three. One near the mall, one close to the Cineplex and the other…" Brennan paused for a moment to look at Shalimar. "And is the other is an abandoned warehouse very close to Valentino's."

"That's gotta be it, let's go." Shalimar grabbed her coat and they headed for the Double Helix.


	17. Gassed

"This could be bad." Jesse observed as Mitch came towards them. It was now apparent what his favourite 'toy' was: a little silver device that had a thin, but deadly sharp blade and a little hole for a finger. Obviously this was used by Mitch to cut off fingers and other small parts of the body.

"This could be very bad." Lexa agreed. Jesse began to rummage the hairpin around the lock, not really caring at this point if Mitch noticed.

"What are you doing?" Mitch screamed at Jesse. Surprised and a little disturbed by his outbreak, Jesse stopped trying to pick the lock. "That's not how it's supposed to go!" Mitch ran over to Jesse and punched him several times with screaming, maniac passion.

Lexa, unable to just sit and watch, pried her leg free and kicked Mitch in his knee with the spike of her high heels.

Screaming with pain, Mitch fell to the floor with blood spurting out of his leg. He scrambled back in an outraged almost fear and looked at Lexa as if she was the crazy one.

Lexa looked at Jesse with concern. Mitch had broken his nose and blood filled his mouth, but Jesse remained calm.

"I don't like you anymore!" Mitch spat.

"Trust me, the feeling's mutual." Jesse smiled, spitting out some blood from his mouth.

Mitch smiled. "You need some sleep. I will play with you while you're sleeping." He stood up, smiled at them with an evil, mocking grin and staggered out of the room with his blood leaving a trail behind him. The metal door scraped shut, leaving the room hollow and quiet once again.

"We should probably not fall asleep then." Jesse muttered. Before Lexa could reply, she heard a noise come from above them that sounded like water being released from a pipe. She looked up and could see no water, but she did see a few vents.

"I don't think we have a choice. He's gassing us, Jess." Lexa panicked. Jesse began to rummage frantically again at the lock. "I'm so gonna kill Shal and Bren if we die." Lexa murmured. Jesse was too worried to pay attention, he needed to concentrate.

Lexa began coughing. "Hurry Jess."

"I'm going as fast as I can." Jesse yelled, feeling the gas enter his lungs. "It's not working!"

Feeling herself moving rapidly to unconsciousness, Lexa leaned against Jesse. He looked at her, never having seen her so vulnerable.

"I never regretted it." Lexa smiled. Pulling herself up, she softly kissed him. Looking into his deep blue eyes for perhaps the last time, she fell into unconsciousness.


	18. Rescued

"This is it." Brennan confirmed as they ran into a warehouse with huge lettering spelling out "Gas Manufacturer Inc".

Shalimar kicked open the double doors and ran through the hall until they reached a fork in the road, so to speak.

"You go right and I'll go left." Brennan instructed. Running down their separate corridors, neither found any sign of Lexa and Jesse.

"Nothing down here." Shalimar reported through her comlink.

"Me…" Brennan paused when he thought he saw a glimmer of sunlight bounce off someone's hair. "Shal, get over here." He whispered.

"On my way." Shalimar replied.

Brennan snuck around the figure quietly, it hadn't seemed that he had been seen yet. Getting closer, the figure became clearer. It was definitely Mitch; the picture in his file identified him.

_Ok, he's a temporal molecular, what's the best way to handle this? _Brennan said to himself, studying it from a safe distance.

"What are you doing here?" A voice behind him said. Turning around quickly, he saw no one. "You shouldn't be here." Someone said beside him. _Damn! _Brennan thought.

"Mitch, I only wanna talk." Brennan said.

"Do you want to play with me?" Mitch smiled. Brennan was surrounded by one man and couldn't even see him.

"Really don't." Brennan murmured. "Where are Lexa and Jesse?"

"My friends are sleeping." Mitch appeared directly in front of him. Before he could let Mitch stop time again, Brennan charged up his strength and threw a bolt of electricity at Mitch, knocking him to the ground.

Shalimar came running in after hearing Brennan and Mitch's little spat. Looking at Mitch on the floor, she winced at his grotesque features. "How could Lex and Jess even think I'd date someone like that?"

"Cos you told them you did." Brennan replied.

"Yeah, well. Come on, we need to find –"

Tuning into her feral senses, she could hear Jesse coughing fiercely from the room inside the metal door directly in front of them. "They're in there."

Shalimar tried to kick the door open, but it wouldn't budge." "Check to see if Mitch has the key."

Checking his front and inside pockets, Brennan found the key. "Got it."

Opening the door, they immediately inhaled a gas that made them feel drowsy and their lungs feel heavy. Covering her mouth and nose with her shirt, Shalimar could see Lexa unconscious and Jesse almost asleep.

"You get Jess, I'll get Lexa." Brennan directed. Running inside, they grabbed Jesse and Lexa and made their way out of the building, leaving an unconscious Mitch lying on the floor.

When they reached the outside of the building, Shalimar and Brennan breathed in as much fresh air as humanly possible.

"Lex and Jess should wake up as soon as the fresh air knocks out the gas." Brennan said. Waiting a few minutes, Lexa opened her eyes only to be blinded by the sun.

"Lex?" It was Shalimar. Sitting up, Lexa spent a few seconds trying to get the remainder of the gas out of her breathing system. Jesse, awakening to the sound of Lexa's coughing, sat up only to lie back down again. "We feel like hell." Jesse said, taking a look at Lexa and seeing her face as tired as his.

"And we are so, so sorry about that." Shalimar apologised to both of them.

"When I feel better I'm gonna kill you." Lexa threatened.

"Get in line." Jesse added.

"And we totally deserve it." Brennan agreed.

"Yeah you do." Jesse coughed. His lip was beginning to swell up and he was pretty sure his face was very bruised.

"Maybe we should go back to Sanctuary, clean you guys up and talk about it there." Shalimar suggested.

"What about Mitch?" Lexa asked.

"He's unconscious and will be for a while with all the gas in there." Brennan replied. "I'll come back later and deal with him."

"Ok. Come on, the Helix is double parked." Shalimar smiled. Helping Lexa and Jesse up, they made their way back to Sanctuary.


	19. Secrets and Confessions

After Shalimar and Brennan had successfully taken Jesse and Lexa back to Sanctuary and had given them the OK medically, they felt they had something to confess.

Lexa and Jesse were in the hall discussing about something very deeply. With a sigh and a quick reassuring look from Brennan, they stepped into the room where Lexa and Jesse immediately stopped talking.

"We feel we need to tell you something." Brennan said, glancing from Jesse to Lexa.

"First of all, we are both so sorry for this whole Mitch thing. It was a complete mistake and Brennan and I feel terrible about it." Shalimar paused, taking a deep breath. "And second of all…"

Shalimar looked to Brennan for the words and Jesse and Lexa both looked to Brennan for the confession.

"Shal and I are kinda… dating." Brennan breathed.

"No! You would have never of guessed!" Jesse exclaimed.

"You're the sneakiest." Lexa chimed in, with her sarcasm as obvious as she could make it. Shalimar and Brennan looked at each other amused and slightly embarrassed.

"Ok, so when did you know?" Brennan asked.

"Well, we didn't think Shal would lower her standards date-wise with Mitch – nice choice by the way Shal – and besides, how many people talk about stain remover?" Lexa laughed and Jesse sniggered.

"Well, we could have been talking about stain remover." Shalimar smiled.

"Right." Jesse agreed, stifling a laugh.

"Sorry we didn't tell you earlier." Brennan said once the laughter died down and there was an awkward pause.

"Yeah, we feel really bad about lying to you guys. We should have just told you." Shalimar added. Jesse and Lexa glanced at each other for a split second.

"It's really ok. Sometimes people have secrets that we don't want to reveal or confess to anyone." Lexa replied. Jesse looked at her briefly with a short flash of hurt in his eyes.

"Right." Jesse vaguely agreed. "Listen, I'm gonna hit the shower. I'm really happy for you guys."

Jesse left the room with a quiet fury that only Lexa could hear or understand.

"That was weird." Brennan observed, looking to Shalimar for some clue or explanation.

"Yeah, well, I'm gonna go and do some work. Bye." Lexa rushed to leave the room almost as fast as Jesse.

"That was weirder." Shalimar said, smiling at Brennan. He embraced her in a tight hug.

"So now they know. Are you glad we told them?" Brennan asked, gazing down at her face.

"I'm relieved mostly, like a weight has been lifted. But I will miss the narrow escapes." Shalimar smiled mischievously.

Brennan lowered himself down to kiss her, feeling the warmth and power of her touch, knowing that this was only the beginning of something wonderful.

"Jess." Lexa said softly, running after Jesse, who seemed a little pissed off. "Jess!"

He turned around with a stern look on his face. "What?"

"You know what." Lexa replied, slowing and stopping to be within inches of his face, placing her hand on his face, caressing him.

He clasped her hands and removed them, once again walking away.

"I meant what I said, I don't regret it." Lexa cried after him.

"Well I'm beginning to." Jesse whispered over his shoulder.

THE END


End file.
